Polyacrylamide and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide are water soluble polymers that have been previously disclosed in the literature and have found application in the viscosification of aqueous solutions. This is achieved through a combination of high molecular weight and chain expansion due to repulsion of pendant ionic groups along the polymer chain. However, high molecular weight polymers present well known difficulties in manufacture and subsequent processing because of their irreversible degradation when exposed to conditions of high shear such as would be obtained in the usual stirring devices. Moreover, the presence of pendant ionic groups leads to solution properties which are markedly influenced by the presence of dissolved cations. In particular, the viscosity of solutions of these polymers usually decreases strongly upon increasing concentrations of brine.
We have discovered an alternative means for providing polymers which viscosify water or brine at low concentrations. This method relies on the incorporation of a small amount of hydrophobic groups into a polymer with a water soluble backbone. These hydrophobic groups tend to associate with one another in an aqueous solution, and when the association occurs intermolecularly, the solution viscosity may be increased relative to the polymer without the hydrophobic side groups. An additional benefit is that the solution viscosity is relatively insensitive to salts because the hydrophobic groups are not ionic.
The synthesis of copolymers composed of water soluble and water insoluble monomers presents difficulties. In order for polymerization to be effected, the monomers must obviously come into close proximity to one another. A variety of processes based upon prior art could conceivably achieve this, but have serious deficiencies, necessitating the instant invention. For example, simply dispersing the water insoluble monomer as fine particles in the aqueous medium, while dissolving the water soluble monomer in water would result in poor incorporation of the water insoluble monomer and would lead to a heterogeneous product of particles dispersed in the predominantly water soluble polymer. This would therefore require the extra step of separating the unreacted monomer particulates from the reaction product.
Conventional emulsion polymerization, which uses a surfactant to disperse the water insoluble monomer into the aqueous medium containing the dissolved water soluble monomer, has other disadvantages. In this process, the bulk of the water insoluble monomer is contained initially in droplets which are at least one micron in diameter. These droplets must be stabilized against coalescence by a combination of agitation and added surfactant. The product copolymer is usually in the form of particulates with diameters on the order of 500 to 2000 .ANG. in diameter.
Alternatively, both monomers may be dissolved in a solvent or solvent mixture having properties intermediate between water and a hydrocarbon solvent. Although this undoubtedly allows the comonomers to come into close proximity to one another, since the dispersion is on a molecular scale, this process presents other difficulties. For example, often the copolymer is insoluble in the mixed solvent which is capable of solubilizing the monomers. This leads to precipitation of the copolymer when it has a molecular weight which is still too low to produce efficient viscosification. The reaction product is usually heterogeneous which therefore requires a disadvantageous additional processing step. Furthermore, the water miscible solvents such as alcohols, acetone, ethers and acetic acid are fairly good chain transfer agents and when used in reasonable quantities would lead to decreased molecular weights and hence poor viscosification efficiency.